


Something in the Air

by Sossity



Category: due South
Genre: Fluff, Ice Cream, M/M, Pre-Slash, Spring, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-01
Updated: 2011-12-01
Packaged: 2017-10-26 18:27:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/286521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sossity/pseuds/Sossity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser finds himself...restless at this time of year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something in the Air

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone missing warmer weather right now.

Spring comes a good month or two earlier in Chicago than it does in the Northwest Territories, and every year, it still manages to sneak up on Fraser. The buds on the hardwood trees distract him with their unexpected color; tiny red and white not-flowers that resolve eventually into perfect, miniature leaves. Songbirds return, and the sun warms up just enough for heavy clothes to become uncomfortable and get left at home.

Fraser finds himself...restless at this time of year. Paperwork cannot hold his interest, and he catches himself staring out the window like a schoolboy just before the bell. Ray is unfortunately subjected to his ever increasing impatience until the day he just can't bear his dress uniform a second longer than he has to, and shows up to a crime scene in his jeans and sweatshirt.

Ray never says a word, but when his shift is over that Friday he offers Fraser a ride back to the Consulate as usual, then kidnaps him--once a year, every year, and Fraser still never expects it--to drive an hour or two up the coast to where the houses thin out and there's room to breathe and a place to park. They walk up and down the shoreline in silence until Fraser's shoulders loosen up and then Ray veers off back into civilization and they stop at the same little ice cream stand that opens for the season before anything else does. Fraser can sit still finally; lean back into the picnic table and watch cream-colored droplets trail down his fingers onto the pavement. Occasionally drops fall into the cuffs of his pants or onto his boots, but he doesn't move to wipe them off.

Ray always orders some complicated concoction that's half marshmallow, or nut, or some odd fruit, or occasionally all three with just enough ice cream to hold it together. Fraser gets frozen pudding. Fraser always teases Ray about his bizarre choices. Ray teases Fraser about always picking the same thing, and about how boring and tasteless "frozen pudding" sounds. Fraser tells him not to knock it until he's tried it. And so on and so on, all the way through the ice cream, back to the car, and back to Chicago, where Fraser gets the best night of sleep he's had in months and wakes up in a good mood.

Except this year, a few minutes into the usual bickering, Ray rolls his eyes, leans over, and licks a long stripe up the side of Fraser's cone.

Fraser is struck dumb.

Ray sits back up and flicks his tongue over his mouth, considering. Then he _beams_ at Fraser, half laughing, half long-suffering, and tells him that he's going to make him try drinking rum if _that's_ his favorite flavor.

And Fraser is so completely _lost_ that he can only bite his lip and nod slowly.

And it's not until they're halfway back home that Fraser realizes what he's agreed to.


End file.
